W3XE / WPTZ - Philadelphia

W3XE was first granted permission to operate an experimental station in 1932,
but actually began experimenting with this new medium as far back as
1928.

As an experimental station in 1932, channel 3, then
operated out of the Philco company plant at C & Tioga Streets. Founded
by the Philco Corporation, the station first broadcast into homes of 100
of the company's employees, mostly engineers. As the Philco engineers
tinkered with the new technology, the station aired employee talent
shows and travelogues to enable them to check the quality of the
broadcast signal.

In 1939, W3XE, telecast the first college night
football game, Temple University versus Kansas, and the following year
started regular telecasts of the University of Pennsylvania home games,
which continued up until 1951.

New ground continued to be broken into the forties as
channel 3 aired 60 hours of the 1940 Republican National Convention, the
first major coverage of a national political conclave. The signal was
sent to the station's tower, then located at Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania to
Princeton, New Jersey, and then onto the Empire State Building from
which NBC broadcast it nationally.

In 1941, the station was granted a commercial TV
license with the call sign WPTZ. This was Pennsylvania's first
commercial station and the country's second. In1942 Channel 3 aired
"Last Year's Nest," the first TV soap opera ever.

In 1941, viewers saw the first telecast of the Mummers
Parade, and was treated to a six-part serial drama in 1942, "Last Year's
Nest." This drama was produced in Philadelphia and telecast nationally.

In 1946, channel 3 got its first commercial sponsor,
the Atlantic Richfield Company, which sponsored Penn football. The
Gimbel Brothers became the station's first full-show sponsor with "All
Eyes on Gimbels." The first half of the show was product demonstrations
and tips, and the second half of the show was a kiddie's program where a
company of talented youngsters sang and danced.

In 1953 Channel 3 beccame the first local station in
the country to televise a commercial color program, a Walt Disney
special.